Este taller de tres días de duración relativo al Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC y la salud pública, organizado por la OMC en Ginebra, forma parte de las actividades de cooperación técnica y creación de capacidad de la Organización. La sigla ADPIC corresponde a los “aspectos de los derechos de propiedad intelectual relacionados con el comercio”, y con ella se designa el Acuerdo de la OMC sobre la propiedad intelectual.

Like earlier workshops held in Geneva since 2005, this capacity-building activity aimed to ensure that the participants have the information necessary so that their countries can make use of the TRIPS Agreement’s flexibilities for public health purposes.

Entre otros temas, el taller se centró en la flexibilidad adicional convenida por los Miembros en agosto de 2003 y diciembre de 2005 para permitir la producción, al amparo de licencias obligatorias, de versiones genéricas de medicamentos patentados para su exportación a países que no puedan fabricar las medicinas por sí mismos, de conformidad con el denominado “mecanismo del párrafo 6”.

Similar regional workshops have also been held for African countries in Mauritius in June 2006, for the Asia Pacific region in Macao in July 2007 and for Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2008. In addition, the TRIPS public health flexibilities figure prominently in other WTO national and regional technical cooperation events.

The workshop featured presentations by WTO officials, providing an introduction to the key elements of the TRIPS Agreement and related WTO instruments, in particular the provisions of direct relevance to public health, the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, and the paragraph 6 system.

Representatives of other intergovernmental organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Health Organization (WHO), and UN Development Program (UNDP), reported on their activities. The speaker from the African Organization for Intellectual Property (OAPI) added a regional perspective to the debate.

To complete the picture, a number of other speakers were invited to share their experiences and views. These included representatives of the research and development (R&D) and generic industries, Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Frontiers), and some WTO member governments with implementing legislation in place allowing for exports under the paragraph 6 system. Practical exercises enabled participants to apply the acquired knowledge to concrete cases.

The participants came from: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, India, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritius, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Chinese Taipei, Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda.